After a long career at Barron's, I joined Forbes as San Francisco bureau chief in December 2010. I've been writing about technology and investing for more than 25 years. With the Tech Trade, I've picked up where I left off when I was writing the Tech Trader Daily blog at Barrons.com. When I'm not working, you can find me riding my road bike around the Bay Area hills, managing my fantasy baseball team, rooting for my beloved Phillies and Eagles and hanging out in the Valley with my family. You can follow me on Facebook, on Twitter (@savitz), and on Google+.

AOL Shares Sag On Management Shake-Up

COO Artie Minson is stepping down. The WSJ reports that he had differences with CEO Tim Armstrong on the right strategy for AOL’s Patch and Huffington Post units.

The company has named Susan Lyne, an AOL board member who is also Vice Chairman of Gilt and a former CEO of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, to run AOL’s Brand Group.

AOL said Lyne’s appointment is part of ”continued efforts to streamline its operations and give its business unit leaders more autonomy and accountability.”

Jefferies analysts Brian Pitz and Brian Fitzgerald write in a research note this morning that Minson will be missed.

“We are huge fans of Artie having known him since the AOL spin-off in late 2009,” they write in a research note. “We believe Artie is finding that his COO role has diminished somewhat as the company recently split into 3 operating groups, AOL Brand, Network, Membership, each with its own leadership….Susan is a top notch exec and a high profile hire, but we will be still be sorry to see Artie go. We assume he will be snapped up very quickly by one of the many Internet startups. Artie is expected to stay with Aol for a transition time and is expected to leave sometime later in the year.”